Category Archives: Tango

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango, Thoughts

A rhythmical revelation at Porteño y Bailarín

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The two-tier pricing controversy escalated, so now has a standalone post here.

It’s Alessandra’s first visit to BsAs, and in the first couple of days she wanted to spend every waking moment in the daytime out sightseeing, and then every waking moment at night in milongas. By day five, she finally understood that you can only do that for so long! She visited museums and galleries in the day, and had no energy to dance in the evening; I had a quiet day at home, and was out dancing until 3.30am.

All the same, the night was a first: I left before the end of the milonga! Only 30 minutes before, mind, but still …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Tango

A very Argentine afternoon, and closing Parakultural at 4am

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Alessandra hasn’t quite grasped that mornings and I have an uneasy relationship at the best of times, and when operating on BsAs milonga time, I view them in much the same light as Guardia Vieja tandas.

Instead, she decided that pre-9am was a good time to suggest going out for coffee, and about an hour later was the perfect time for a Spanish lesson …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Tango

A wonderful welcome back to my second home: closing El Beso at 3am

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It was a year ago to the day that I was last here in BsAs for a month-long stay. As a freelance writer, I don’t earn any money when I’m not working, so my last visit was one week of pure holiday, and three weeks working holiday. This was … not a good plan!

Don’t misunderstand me: I had a truly wonderful time. What I did not have was much sleep! So this time I decided to take the financial hit of three weeks’ holiday and just the last week of working in the mornings …

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Practica, Private lesson, Tango

A back cross private with Emma, and a practica to put it to the test

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I don’t generally use my privates to work on figures, but I did want to add the back cross. There are times when a slow rebound feels right for the music, but I also feel I over-use them, so wanted to have something which had a similar feel to it, but allowed more variety.

I’d had a private on this a loooong time ago, but because I hadn’t felt confident enough to use it in milongas, I’d long since forgotten how it worked. So that was Emma’s task last night …

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Group class, Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

Milonga with Diego; a workshop with Corina and Ines; and an unusual Tango Garden

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Milonga (the dance) and I have an unusual relationship.

Most leaders run a mile from it during their early years; I didn’t. Because I could dance to the beat long before I had the vocabulary to dance to the melody, I was actually very happy with milonga tandas from a very early stage. And because a lot of leaders hide, it made it very easy to get dances, even as a raw beginner.

But as my lyrical dance emerged and evolved, my rhythmical dance felt increasingly unsatisfactory – all the more so at milonga speeds. I wasn’t so much afraid of boring followers as feeling bored by my own dance. I was doing the usual leader’s milonga journey in reverse: I’d now become one of the leaders who avoid it …

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Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

Another magical milonga at the ambassador’s residence, and a breakthrough lesson with Emma

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The Argentine Ambassador’s milonga is one of my absolute favourites. A spectacular setting, fantastic DJs, three dance floors, and a friendly atmosphere. If the grandeur were more faded, you could almost imagine it were BsAs.

One difference from the real version is that, in London, a flexible embrace is the norm. That’s also the case in some BsAs milongas, but in the more traditional ones, the prevailing style is very much sustained close-embrace: where everything can be danced chest-to-chest. I therefore followed up with a private focused on this …

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Milonga, Tango

Much pleasure indeed at Un Placer

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Diego B had given me two recommendations, one quite some time ago, the other just yesterday – but I have my suspicions that the two may be related.

The first, dating back some time, was that I needed to have the courage to cabeceo more advanced followers. The second was to suggest I dance at Un Placer …

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Private lesson, Tango

Returning to leading lessons as BsAs fast approaches

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Three things to me are clear from my following adventure: I’m really enjoying it; it’s helping my lead too; it’s going to be several months before I get anywhere close to being able to follow competently in a milonga.

That being the case, and with my month-long return to Buenos Aires rapidly approaching, I decided it was time to use my last few privates before March to tune-up my lead …

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Following, Private lesson, Tango

Pugliese helping out with my latest following lesson

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A busy work trip to Vegas followed by a bout of COVID brought home as a souvenir meant that I hadn’t done as much solo practice as I’d hoped – and it showed! Though Emma seemed more impressed by my following than I was, with rather more ‘Esa!’s than I felt were merited.

But despite me still feeling I was 70% clumsiness to 30% flow, Señor Pugliese joined Emma as co-teacher to deliver one hugely important lesson …

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Tango, Thoughts

In praise of active cabeceo by followers

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I’ve officially written so many blog posts I can’t remember which ones I have or haven’t written … As with Etonathon, I thought I’d written this one before, but can’t find any evidence for this.

In my previous post, I mentioned a follower friend who was feeling too shy to cabeceo a leader she felt was too far above her tango pay-grade. I tried to persuade her, based on my own experience of having many more acceptances than declines from far more advanced followers, but ended up having to take executive action …

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